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STARKE, Fla. (AP) — In Florida, a man who was convicted of using a police officer’s own service weapon to fatally shoot him during a traffic stop is scheduled for execution on Tuesday evening.
Billy Leon Kearse, now 53, will face execution by a three-drug lethal injection beginning at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison, located near Starke. Kearse was originally condemned to death in 1991 following his conviction for first-degree murder and armed robbery.
The Florida Supreme Court, however, determined that the trial court had not adequately informed jurors regarding certain aggravating factors, prompting a new sentencing hearing. This led to Kearse being re-sentenced to death in 1997.
This execution marks the third scheduled in Florida for 2026, after a record-setting 19 executions took place last year. In 2025, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis presided over more executions within a single year than any other Florida governor since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. Previously, the highest yearly total was eight executions, occurring in both 1984 and 2014 under former governors Bob Graham and Rick Scott, respectively.
Court documents reveal that Fort Pierce Police Officer Danny Parrish stopped Kearse in January 1991 for driving the wrong way on a one-way street. When Kearse failed to present a valid driver’s license, Officer Parrish instructed him to exit the vehicle and attempted to place him in handcuffs.
A struggle ensued, and Kearse grabbed Parrish’s firearm, prosecutors said. Kearse fired 14 times, striking the officer nine times in the body and four times in his body armor. A nearby taxi driver heard the shots and used Parrish’s radio to call for help.
Parrish was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died from the gunshot wounds, officials said. Meanwhile, police used license plate information that Parrish had called in before approaching Kearse to identify the attacker’s vehicle and home address, where Kearse was arrested.
Last week, the Florida Supreme Court denied appeals filed by Kearse. His attorneys had argued that he was unconstitutionally deprived of a fair penalty phase and that his intellectual disability makes his execution unconstitutional.
Final appeals were pending Tuesday before the U.S. Supreme Court.
A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis, far outpacing Alabama, South Carolina and Texas which each held five executions.
Besides the two Florida executions this year, Texas and Oklahoma have each executed one person so far.
Two more Florida executions have already been scheduled for this month. Michael Lee King, 54, is scheduled to die on March 17, and the execution of James Aren Duckett, 68, is set for March 31.
All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.